Marketing

I’d like to end my blog with a post that I’ve been wanting to publish since the beginning. My marketing group chose Starbucks and since we’ve done so much research on this, it’s a waste I’m not doing a post on it.

Starbucks is a very powerful corporation, having almost 17,000 outlets in dozens of countries. It would be interesting to compare Starbuck’s economic power with Apple, which too has gained similar strength since the 70s. I believe here is one thing in common that makes them special – marketing strategy.

Starbucks had basically created a very strong brand statement, setting their coffee at a premium price (and a premium quality, of course). They are very consumer oriented (couches and wifi) and aimed at people who have a standard for the coffee they drink. If anyone were to drink coffee from elsewhere, there isn’t anything noticeable or special (like people who use Windows). If they were drinking Starbucks however, it says something about themselves, and the green siren on their cup quickly becomes recognise. Starbucks is also very consistent with it’s strategy, opening in populated areas for example. They are also a long time supporter of charitable organisations and fair trade, which has become a global issue in previous years.

I’d like to go on and on about how marketing has changed the destiny of so many multinational corporations now, but a blog post is limited and all I can say is marketing does indeed play a key role in business. I’d like to end my last blog stating the importance of Comm293 and how it has changed the way I view products on the shelves of grocery stores. Thank You Tamar!

This blog is about a new type of marketing, targeted to Generation E, the complete blog could be found in the link below:

http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2011/03/generation_vs_interest_based_m_1.html

I find this blog cleverly written, and I very much agree with the points the writer wrote. However, I question the sustainability and arguments of this blog. Firstly, Marchand wrote that marketers should no loner target different demographics, because these different people share the same interest, and hence communicating the same message is sufficient.

But doesn’t that defeat the purpose of marketing in the first place? Targeting everyone because they share the same interest in the product is the earliest type of marketing. Over the decades (or even millennium), this idea has evolved through eras. We begin to segment our target groups, target our audience and spend millions or sometimes billions of dollars on marketing. This is what marketing has come to. Is the Marchand saying we should all go back to where we started and just target everyone instead?

What he says has a point. Maybe in the world we live in now, we DO spend too much trying to segment and target when there really is not a need to. Why should we make a type of running shoe for seniors when the point of them buying the shoes is to stay young and healthy? Should Nike just consider it’s brand instead of the product when releasing them? Consumers have a source for their information and in our minds, we all have an impressions and position for Nike, right?

Happy Chinese New Year – Awesome Segmentation

Quite awhile ago, Nick made a post about a viral ad that was released during Chinese New Year. The content of this video will not be discussed in this blog, but Nick did a great job describing it. I fully agree with Nick’s point of view over the tactic that Tengxun had employed, and I just want to add a few more points to complement his post.

This video might seem like a tactic, might i believe it’s actually a strategy. Tengxun provides instant messaging services in China, much like how Canadians, or North Americans use MSN or AOL. Any advertisement targeted towards Chinese in China is not going to be effective. Because in China, everything is “Chinese”, this concept will become clear further down the post. This video is obviously specifically targeted at oversea Chinese students for a few reasons.

A) Students are probably the tech savviest segment and are probably the main users of Tengxun’s service.

B) Oversea’s Chinese student would probably feel a sense of nationalism due to the fact that Tengxun is Chinese, compared to MSN or AOL or Skype or any other instant messaging service they could use. Tengxun does not want to lose it’s global market share because oversea Chinese students are switching. This video subtly strengthens the bond between them and Chinese students. After all, many of these Chinese students are doing university outside China, and probably spent their high school days chatting with their friends using Tengxun.

Overall, Nick’s post was very written and I felt the exact same way. Though I’m not and was never a user of Tengxun, I understand it’s significance.

Those who know me would know that I’m born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I’ve met people who’ve been to Malaysia, they say it’s a nice place. After all, the only reason they’re there is for the beaches and the sunshine. No one really sees the true image of the country, this is the same everywhere else.

Not too long ago, I saw an ad produced by the government of Malaysia.

It’s becoming common for countries to come up with ads, intending to attract tourist. In fact, Tourism is one of the biggest industry in the world. For Malaysia, it’s a huge source of income.

Here’s the thing though, will we ever go to Malaysia because we saw that ad?

There are places where we’d always want to go, perhaps Paris, or Cairns. And it’s not because we saw an ad on television or a flyer.

For some weird reason, I feel that only countries that have a bad reputation within the tourism industry promote themselves through advertisements such as the above video. Malaysia for all I know is corrupted and suffers from civil unrest since as long as I can remember. Maybe it’s just me, maybe some people find this ad intriguing and want to buy a ticket to Penang immediately. Whenever I return to Malaysia, my relatives often tell me stories of girls getting raped, men getting robbed or killed. I really can’t imagine anyone going to Malaysia for a vacation

But again, referring to the social media revolution video, only 14% believe in ads. The most effective way to get a message across is to provide a good time to those tourist that had visited, so they’ll be the advocate when they return to their home country.

Joshua recently published a post about the dominance of Windows over the industry.

There’s just a few points that I found laughable and hence this blog post.

Indeed, Microsoft is the leader of an industry producing operating systems. In fact, back in high school, my economics teacher said that Microsoft is a monopoly. Let us look at this at an escalated level, instead of Windows and Mac – Microsoft and Apple.

Let me first point out that the reason why electronic stores do not sell Macs. Not all electronic stores are authorized to sell Macs, this is why those that DO sell macs have banners that say “authorized reseller” on it. Secondly, despite the huge advantage and economies of scale Microsoft enjoys, their market share is STILL being stolen away. What’s Microsoft’s biggest threat? Undoubtedly Apple, this is probably the reason why Joshua published a post in the first place. But notice the market share of Mac OS is almost less than a tenth of Windows.

The fact is, Apple is slowly building power. How can anyone not see this? Iphones, Ipads, Ipods. We’re subconsciously being drawn closer to Apple. Here’s the real question: why are people paying double the price for a computer that’s made of aluminum and runs on a different OS than everyone else? That’s right, marketing. Notice how Steve Jobs presents his products himself, notice how we’re paying 10 times the price for an MP3 player, notice how the word ipod replaced MP3, notice how tablet computers ONLY became a trend when the ipad came out. Coincidence? or Apple’s branding strategy?

I’m young, and have yet to see the world, but I love learning, exploring and learning new facts. However, there are a couple of things that I’ve never heard of, Apple not having best marketing strategy ever, especially relative to Microsoft, and Microsoft “increasing their consumer groups”. The only valid reason I’ve seen on the post is Mac’s compatibility with a majority of games. This again, is probably intentionally, and a good positioning statement. Apple is not a gaming computer and plans to stay that way.

If you don’t believe me, ask yourself this: Everyone that is using a Mac now probably switched from Windows, but nobody does the opposite. World greatest mystery? or just very simple reason that has got everything to do with marketing explained in this 300 word blog post? You decide.

Joshua Wu and I have been friends for almost 10 years. We’ve had many friendly debates over Windows and Mac. We still go through the same conversation on a regular basis.

I’m sure we’ve all taken public transit. I’m also sure we’ve all notice the green and white advertisement, with the initials UNBC on either a bus or train.

Yes, UNBC stands for University of Northern British Columbia, in Prince George. We might have been observant and noticed what it stood for, but have we looked at the ad clearly?

UNBC’s main strategy is comparing it’s geographical location with Vancouver, and seemingly their campus with UBC (or any other campuses here in the Greater Vancouver Region). They have a clear position they want to establish in our minds; an easy to remember tagline, and a very strong brand. UNBC is Canada’s green university.

Their location, choice of color, lifestyle etc, resembles a laid back country life, strongly contrasting with UBC, and probably other universities here in Vancouver. They also emphasize on their size, their closeness with nature and “the great outdoors”. Furthermore, they try to promote the advantages of their characteristic towards people in the city, and that’s probably the reason why they place their ads in train stations and buses.

What makes it even more obvious is a huge picture of their campus, over seeing a lake, with miles and miles of trees in the background. A scene rarely seen in cities, unleashing the outdoor side of anyone who looks at the ads. This is how UNBC positions itself, and this is how they compensate for their deficiency in academic competency (UNBC is very research oriented).

I’m sure many had heard of groupon. It’s an interesting idea actually. Deals are negotiated, and then confirmed with a certain amount of people buys the “coupons” to these deals. They frequently come up with videos describing themselves and what they do.

Their videos are humorous, except for this one:

Clearly, this video has not been receiving much “likes” from Youtubers who claimed that it was racist and inappropriate.

People in North America seem to be very passionate about what’s going on in Tibet and shouting “Free Tibet” every so often. They usually have no knowledge about Tibet and just follow whatever is being spread and said on the internet. I won’t go on commenting, this post is not about that.

Anyway, marketers often seem to integrate their products with hot topics that are going on during the moment. This video is an example, some tweet about Egyptians hearing rumours about a new product line of some season from some fashion firm is another. These marketers make serious mistakes. Firstly they probably know nothing about these global issues that people around care so much about, and second, these “advertisements” often back fire and create a huge mess.

There are so many more ways to make people remember your brand and product besides using a political turbulences in other countries. To be honest, the US and Canada aren’t very peaceful nations as well. No one is in place to judge or criticise another country, culture or group of people, especially for the purpose of marketing.

As we all know, PETA (People for the Ethnical Treatment of Animals) is an animal rights organisation.

Over the years, they’ve promoted themselves, and animals rights in a soft sell method. Such as revealing how animals are slaughtered in brochures, informing people that millions of chickens and cows can be saved if we cut our meat consumption by 50%. Many of us would subconsciously group these campaigns with other marketing campaigns and somewhat pay no attention to them. This is normal.

I guess PETA realised that they have to come up with a better method to attract (lots of) people’s attention. After they’ve done that, they’ll have to persuade them not to eat meat. And of course, just like anyone that keep up with the modern world would know that there’s no better to do this than a viral video. Below is a video released by PETA, showing how animals are dealt with before they’re served in Mcdonalds or KFC or wherever they’re shipped to.

This video caught so much attention when it was first released, though I know some people are not affected, I actually know friends who turned vegan after this video. Whether this video converted people into vegetarians is not the point. What makes this campaign successful is the amount of attention it received, and ultimately, raise awareness. Would you turn vegan after watching this video? Maybe not, but it does make you think twice before ordering a double sausage McMuffin, or not finishing your chicken burger.

Everyone knows the old spice guy. His ads first appeared in theatres almost a year ago. I’ve been told my many of my friends that this ad (or campaign) was an example of very successful marketing – I partially agree with them.

The advertisement is humourous in several ways. It contradicts, how body wash brands usually brand themselves. It goes against the usually video of a white woman stroking herself with soothing music in the background. Instead, it replaces the “white woman” with a robust black man. This ad recognises, that half of it’s consumers (and the population of the world), are actually men. This is also how they’re going to brand their product and their target is obvious – men.

If you listen to what he’s saying, you’ll notice he starts off with: “hello ladies, look at your man…”. This makes it apparent that the buyers are women (or men) and the users are men (or the boyfriend of women)

Instead of just having advertisements in cinema, they upload videos on Youtube and even response to comments, live! I’ve seen several facebook updates urging people to comment on the old spice youtube channel, and ask questions. I guess it’s not too hard to figure out that answering those questions and responding to comments are part of the whole marketing plan. Even now, months after not seeing the old spice guy, the product has a position in our minds. Old spice is for people who are “chick magnets” and their videos are apparently way more effective than the product description Axe has on the back of their bottles.

We were taught that marketing existed for many years. Indeed, as long as the concept of commerce existed, there was marketing.

Recall what we learnt in class, marketing is present in different forms.

As we all know, we are entering an era where information is shared quickly and efficiently. e-commerce, e-businesses, terms that never existed even several decades ago are very frequently used now. Facebook, Youtube, sites that were only found years ago are now making billions of dollars. People from all over the world spend hours a day on these sites. Social media is a new medium.

How can marketers take advantage of this technological shift and harness the world of social media?

Word of mouth is a powerful tool. The video mentioned that 78% of consumers trust peer recommendation, and only 14% trust ads. In the world we live in now, it’s so easy to spread the word. We are, for the first time in history, able to tell all hundreds of friends (or people, just in case you don’t know everyone of your “friends” on Facebook) how much we love, or hate a product.

I noticed a lot businesses already making fan pages or ads for their product on Facebook, assuming they’ve already taken advantage of social media. In my opinion, I think they’ve missed the point. I believe the most effective marketing is to see an update of your friend’s status about a product on your homepage. Whether it be twitter, facebook, myspace (if it still exists), msn display name, etc. And quality customer service and true branding, is what it gets any business there.